Exercise for Life

Shepherd Center’s ProMotion Fitness Center offers extensive work-out facilities for people with and without disabilities. Photo by Gary Meek

Exercise and Wellness

Becky Washburn is Shepherd Center's wellness programs manager.

Shepherd Center’s ProMotion Fitness Center has a weight room, indoor track, full-court gymnasium and swimming pool. It is the people — clients and staff — who set it apart from the typical gym.

“Our center is open to the community, so we have a wide variety of people with and without disabilities,” says Becky Washburn, Shepherd’s manager for ProMotion and Beyond Therapy®. “It’s a very welcoming environment. A lot of cross-awareness and integration to the community happens in our gym.”

Each client begins with a one-on-one session with a ProMotion staff member to discuss the client’s goals. The staff then tailors a wellness program to meet the specific needs and goals of the member.

Many clients will continue exercising at more traditional gyms closer to their homes, so they get tips on making that transition.

“Some of the pieces in our gym are adaptable, but we have traditional equipment, too,” Washburn says. “We do a lot of education to teach our patients what they can do in a traditional gym and how to advocate for themselves.”

Beyond Therapy® clients also are encouraged to get into adaptive sports, like handcycling, which can become fun family activities.

“Maintaining wellness and physical fitness is important for all of us, but for our patients, it is critical to being successful and strong in the community,” Washburn says.

For more information on ProMotion, call 404-350-7789.

Written by David Simpson
Photography by Gary Meek

About Shepherd Center

Shepherd Center, located in Atlanta, Georgia, is a private, not-for-profit hospital specializing in medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury, brain injury, multiple sclerosis, spine and chronic pain, and other neuromuscular conditions. Founded in 1975, Shepherd Center is ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the top 10 rehabilitation hospitals in the nation. In its more than four decades, Shepherd Center has grown from a six-bed rehabilitation unit to a world-renowned, 152-bed hospital that treats more than 935 inpatients, 541 day program patients and more than 7,300 outpatients each year.